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Beijing authorities have launched sweeping evictions of workers who have migrated from elsewhere in the country, triggering a public outcry over the treatment of people the city depends on to build skyscrapers, care for children and take on other lowly paid work. Whole families have been evicted, often with little notice, leaving them scrambling to transport their belongings in the freezing weather. Many have had to pile their furniture, bags, bedding, clothes and other items into overloaded pickup trucks and vans, discarding kitchenware and other belongings that wouldn't fit. (AP Photo)
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Last week, the city launched a 40-day campaign to clear out tenants from buildings deemed unsafe after a massive fire killed 19 people at apartments rented mainly by low-income Chinese migrant workers. Most tenants living in such homes on the outskirts of the city are factory workers, construction laborers, delivery people, drivers, cleaners, or hairdressers who come from poorer parts of China. (AP Photo)
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Rest of the others run their own small wholesale businesses and shops selling cheap goods. (AP Photo)
There are some who lived for years in the Beijing city with their children. (AP Photo) 
The eviction drive has been met with widespread criticism online, with a group of intellectuals signing an open letter to the central government urging the city to stop the evictions and provide temporary housing for the migrants. (AP Photo) 
One of the signatories, independent political commentator Zhang Lifan, said anger over the evictions showed that rapid economic growth has resulted in a massive accumulation of wealth and also rising inequality and a sense of unfairness. (AP Photo) -
Zhang said many Chinese were quick to extend a hand to displaced migrants because they too had once been in their shoes, having worked their way up the socio-economic ladder to secure a decent middle-class life. (AP Photo)
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Beijing needs migrant workers to do all the low-cost efficient service jobs that middle-class Beijingers depend upon. But if they push them out of the city altogether, then there is going to be no one to do those jobs. (AP Photo)
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The Beijing city government said last year it plans to cap the city's population at 23 million by 2020 and cut by 15 percent the number of people in six main districts. (AP Photo)
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The evictions are part of an ongoing effort by the government to redevelop land and capitalize on rising land prices. With the evictions, the government is effectively driving out the backbone of the city's labor force, Crothall said. (AP Photo)
US announces mandatory visa Integrity fee on all non-immigrant visas
